Week 13 - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

I really wanted to get on with my challenge and I don't care that I haven't finished reading Life of Pi yet - shucks! I'm on my 2nd week on it! Goodness! - I want to read a new book! I'll challenge myself more by reading these 2 books simultaneously...

It's a good thing that this next book I chose seems like a very fun read! I'm liking Christopher and his prime numbers already! haha

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

by Mark Haddon

i was born this way

This Lady Gaga may be an eccentric fame pop monster but heck! most of her music hits it right on target! And just look at how this her new song - Born This Way - in particular inspired this kid to do an amazing cover of it! (see her video at the end of post)

Born This WayLady Gaga(click here to listen to audio)
Intro:
It doesn't matter if you love him, or capital H-I-M
Just put your paws up
'Cause you were born this way, baby

Verse:
My mama told me when I was young
We are all born superstars
She rolled my hair and put my lipstick on
In the glass of her boudoir
"There's nothin wrong with lovin who you are"
She said, "'cause he made you perfect, babe"
"So hold your head up girl and you'll go far,
Listen to me when I say"

Chorus:
I'm beautiful in my way
'Cause God makes no mistakes
I'm on the right track baby
I was born this way
Don't hide yourself in regret
Just love yourself and you're set
I'm on the right track baby
I was born this way

Post-chorus:
Ooo there ain't no other way
Baby I was born this way
Baby I was born this way
Ooo there ain't no other way
Baby, I was born this way
I'm on the right track baby
I was born this way

Don't be a drag - just be a queen
Don't be a drag - just be a queen
Don't be a drag - just be a queen
Don't be!

Verse:
Give yourself prudence
And love your friends
Subway kid, rejoice your truth
In the religion of the insecure
I must be myself, respect my youth
A different lover is not a sin
Believe capital H-I-M (hey hey hey)
I love my life I love this record and
Mi amore vole fe yah (love needs faith)

Repeat chorus + post-chorus

Bridge:
Don't be a drag, just be a queen
Whether you're broke or evergreen
You're black, white, beige, chola descent
You're lebanese, you're orient
Whether life's disabilities
Left you outcast, bullied, or teased
Rejoice and love yourself today
'Cause baby you were born this way

you can view this video here

let's play photo caption: The Korean Conspiracy

Before you get any crazy idea about this post's title, let's play photo caption first...

And guess where we really are?

Having coffee?

That's not my usual caffeine fix

A place to cool off because the room is too hot?

But I can spot an A/C there...

Seems like a place with home cooked-meals to me...

made by one hot mama! haha

(as her boys look on! nyahaha!)

Well...

sorry but it's really a Korean Restaurant - WooRiJib

and not Joy's house haha

*****

to see the rest of the photos above

click here

Thanks to Joy, mJ and JP for the resto pics &

thanks to JP for the pics at Conspiracy Bar

Performers that night were:

Toto Sorioso

Julianne

Layag

you never know what you'll find when you book hunt

I was accompanying my friend to shop for new books so I just had to look for a new one too and I was looking through tumblr, I was specifically looking for a light read - meaning young adult fiction and after going through the various posts I finally decided to pick this one...

Looking for Alaska

by John Green

What convinced me was this book apparently was a page turner based on the enthusiastic post of this one blogger... I remember that that's how I describe THG - a page turner that you can hardly put down! Then why the heck not?

Since I'm being a little spontaneous I also thought of buying a green book since I saw a children's book entitled Staying Blue...there might be a green version! haha.... But I didn't realize that my new author's name is JOHN GREEN! Goodness! Slooooooow! (I only realized this the next day for crying out loud!)

And this next book

SURELY CAUGHT MY EYE

and I need not explain why!

(woah that rhymes! haha)

An Abundance of Katherines

by John Green

I need not tell you that I will most likely enjoy reading that one!

haha

i would love to go to this one (for the hobbyists)

If only Cubao was a walk away and would not take an hour travel for me...

I'd love to go to this Clay Festival

a rank higher than novice

I admit to being a lazy person who would simply copy-paste or right-click-save-image-as then upload sort of blogger and now just more simply click on reblog (thanks to tumblr)... but whenever I get to tinker with Photoshop and discover new things that a rank novice like me can learn and do - I still have the CS2 version - it makes my idle heart go giddy! haha

So here are just two of the special effects I learned to do in Photoshop recently:

Creating text over photo using clipping mask

You can just imagine what I did next...

I changed my profile pictures

in all of my personal sites of course!

haha

and this one may not be too complicated especially for most photoshop experts out there, but so sue me! if I only just discovered how to make use of the blending options and opacity of layers!

click here to see the related tumblr post

Thanks to this tumblr user I was following for the tutorial!

you can check out the layer patterns I used here

you're a photoshop expert if you know what I'm talking about! haha

So now after doodling with that I can safely say

that I am a rank higher than novice!

Wohoo!

(pats myself on the back)

best tweets over the Azkals' win last night

First off I really am not a fan of soccer/football because I find it to be such a slow game - unlike basketball with all the fastbreaks - but with the fervor and enthusiasm that the Philippines' football team, a.k.a. the Azkals, is now generating, I too am swept away with them - well maybe moreso because of the (Fil-Brit) players than the actual game! so sue me! haha

If I wasn't glued online I wouldn't know that last night was the Azkals' game with Mongolia here in Bacolod... Still in front of the pc I asked my mom to tune in to Studio23 and from then on you might think I watched the game?... well not really I was still glued in front of my pc coz the tweets were much more exciting to watch - we were trending worldwide! Especially when Chieffy Caligdong made the amazing 1st GOAL! Gah! My mom was screaming so I just had to look and was able to catch the replay and how Chieffy was doing his celebratory jig on the field to the uproar of the 18,000? fans in attendance at the Panaad Park Stadium in Bacolod! If that doesn't make you the trending topic worldwide on twitter I don't know what will!

And after that I still kept online and checked my twitter page and these are just some of the funny yet amazing tweets last night which were retweeted for sure...

And at the 2nd half, with a 1-0 score, with the MonGOALIE (another tweet) being harassed by the Azkals in his corner while our goalie Neil Etheridge relaxes in his corner, with just around 14 minutes left on the game...Phil Younghusband scores the winning GOAL!

And THIS tweet says it all!!!

Goodness! GAH! I just had to tweet this too!

Wohoo! So till their next game huh? And I will still be glued to twitter during that time coz I still find it more exciting as Pinoys have fun online and now fervently support the Azkals!

Week 12 - Life of Pi

Done reading The Graveyard Book over the weekend! Now that is a quick read and a light one and an easy read too! haha Unfortunately for me I read an ebook version so I didn't get to see the illustrations unlike my Coraline book... I might just buy the book when I find it on sale haha

*****

Let's try and differentiate...easy read from light read from quick read...My friend told me that there was a difference... light doesn't necessary mean quick read or a thin book...some thick books might be easy reads because they are page turners and you're done within a day...do you catch my drift? But honestly for me they're all the same anyway...when I say easy read or a light read or a quick read...they may pertain to and the same kind of books...

But maybe after I re-start reading Life of Pi... I may finally be able to learn that this is no easy read for me - it took me this long before I decided to start reading it all over again (this has been a "current read" in my goodreads.com account for months haha)!

Life of Pi

by

Yann Martel

a lazy Sunday watching a youtube video

so what do you do on a lazy Sunday? Watch a cute video on youtube... May the force be with you!

watching 2 movies back-to-back (not so impulsive really)

I know I'm just one of the many who would rather wait and buy the video or even find time to watch movies online or download them to their pc and digital devices rather than spend money watching movies in cinemas... especially now with the onslaught of 3D movies - gah! even horror movies are on 3D now! haha

So you may not be surprised to know that I was able to watch only my 2nd 3D movie last night! What a better way to refresh my 3D movie watching experience but through an animated movie - Disney's Tangled! their re-imagination of the famous fairy tale story of Rapunzel - incidentally it's Disney's 50th animated feature! - makes you want to reminisce and buy all the animated movies huh - all 49 of them!

Technically speaking I was apprehensive at first since I haven't watched a 3D movie in a long while... I didn't realize that now you had to wear the 3D glasses the whole time (the 1st movie I watched only had certain scenes in 3D)... I was expecting to get headaches halfway through the movie... but well it was an OK experience... yup! the characters were three-dimensional! haha I particularly liked the floating lanterns scene! You got to see it for yourself! And as expected I had fun with the songs of the movie - yup! it's another Disney musical by Alan Menken... and with the voice of Mandy Moore as Rapunzel you can not be disappointed... their songs might not end up as chart toppers or the usual ballads like the previous movie theme songs...but heck they still delivered!

So I give this movie... 4 1/2 stars! haha You can watch in 3D or not it would still have the usual Disney magic people have grown to love!

*****

Define impulsive...

Well my friend and I was watching the last full show of Tangled and when we went out of the cinemas... we saw that the last full show of Love and Other Drugs was in 10 minutes! We originally wanted to watch that movie too! GAH! Why the heck not?! It was a good thing the ticket booth was still open and they entertained us... and so we rushed in and watched this romantic comedy starring Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal...

Honestly this was the 1st movie of Jake that I have ever watched... and I am not really a fan? or it's not that I don't like him... he is just so-so to me... but gah! There were lots of Jake in the movie! hahaha Ok so maybe I can include him in my sexy leading men list now...No wonder it was R-13! haha not to mention seeing lots of Anne too... yup! the movie is Love and Other Drugs - a movie based on this book about a viagra salesman so what do you expect?! haha

It was funny...straightforward and a no nonsense take on adult relationship... it was very realistic... for the most part at least haha...I may not have memorized quotes from the movie - that would take me to either watch it online or buy the video when it comes out - but there was this scene wherein Jake's character goes: "I like this... I like us..." - and in another scene: "you meet thousands of people and none of them really touch you...and then you meet that one person and your life is changed"- well don't quote me on that one I have to watch it again! haha

So for this movie... I give 4 stars simply because it was not perfect anyway and it left me wanting more! oops! SPOILER! haha

Week 11 - The Graveyard Book

I knew Paulo Coelho's By The River Piedra I Sat Down And Wept will be such a light read - i finished it in roughly 5 days and I know if I had more time I can do it in a day haha! It was the typical Coelho book with all the thought provoking inspirations and backhanded advices that you didn't see coming... Since I'm back to reading light fare...my next book is another children's book

*****

I randomly chose this book among my stash of ebooks in my iPod while I was waiting for my friend to arrive before we headed out to watching a late night movie yesterday...After checking online I didn't realize it was a children's fantasy novel...maybe sort of his Coraline...let's see how this would turn out...or how fast I would finish this one...

The Graveyard Book

by

Neil Gaiman